Regulators Eye Murky Commodity Markets

5/15/2013 5:03PM

U.S. and European Union regulators are following up the Libor scandal with new attempts to impose oversight of the opaque, unregulated indices underlying markets like metals and oil. Photo: Associated Press.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... the the ... U S and European regulators are attempting again to impose of this type of opaque unregulated indices used in the metals and oil industries ... and we have the inadmissible Colin Barr the will Street gentle joining us now from time to readers ... I'm I'm fine we we heard about this yesterday with with a focus on the the oil market by two pm my delight this right um this is so that they are expanding with a team at NCC spike places like Platts right way and that the focus is on on markets that are aware that prices are for published buying ... it in its written on them and not completely transparent way ... which this is physical of oil the changes hands and ... oppose the futures market which everybody can stop staring here you can do to ... you Comac's cage on whether ... the prices on all of the few ... reference prices which are published by Frank pray John allspice Last baffles me clap lots oil price only about one thousand mile of metal bullets and ... on the WA Reis is is that these can be manipulated because I'm going across ... an exchange ... but no one is forced to use these indices on it no one says you have to use the plant's price so what's the problem write what I think that's that that is the question the question is what is that we'll Hermès what is the heart how do we know ... we know things are being manipulated nothing could think of white or ... the white ... and I'm planning right under bank lending and it turned out that there are a number of banks were there are traders who were repeating that using it to their advantage IPO there been suspicions that that that's happening upper Markets sniping you especially in two thousandseven two thousandeight there were suspicions that now that was happening in the well markets you will fall ... that the oil price spikes ... very suddenly in the middle of two thousandeight in a time when one hundred and forty seven bond also pounded on another blog that I knew before Advent ... Michael was about the optics write this restored swing so ... aam and that's that's one of the things that attracted attention is is that it sold the farm on scale ... but that answer your your pointed mean you people who persist in these markets ... know that there's the prospect of that happening to this that complicates it makes makes it a harder a mix of all sort of a top order route for the regulators to go on ... I think that they're point I think the point that that a lot for making right now was that ... the fact that that what what was actually being read it appears that we knew we had banks to pay more than two billion dollars in fines to settle these allegations forecasts for about two billion to billion up a large knob of money you can from banks so ... that suggested that some some on foreign things going on that's open people's lives fact that while the PPP did these things are right ... ripe for abuse so what happens now ... what I think that these that the reality is that these probes taken quite a bit of time to gather evidence and if they got exactly what was happening ... right now we don't even know what the scope of the of the EU probe of these companies and end of the plants of this process is we don't know what the dates are we don't know ... you know how abroad that the allegations are in terms of ... the world manipulated ... that continuously over this period Ruby repeated occasionally over that pure resistant know any of these things that's very hard to say ... but I think that we we know the regulators ... haven't had a lot of work experience they the same console you just have to be careful about everything with to think about what we're actually seeing out there in all these ... markets ... write stuff we look for to the matchup on this column called the will Street gentle mocking seven of that ...